The Best Air Fryers of 2021

Unlike most of these appliances, the Cuisinart Compact AirFryer isn’t oddly shaped like a huge egg or space capsule. Rather it’s a big stainless steel cube that looks like a truncated toaster oven. While its boxy shape helps it fit more neatly on a countertop or in a cabinet, the Cuisinart still takes up a bit of countertop real estate (in spite of its name).

You’ll find the Cuisinart is a relatively uncomplicated appliance in terms of heating elements. It doesn’t have cooking preset programs for specific foods or additional functions like “keep warm” or dehydrate, to make the cooking process easier. You simply turn dials to set the temperature and the cooking time, and there’s no need to preheat. There’s also a straightforward manual that includes recipes to get you started on air frying.

Since it has a wide basket, food can be spread out to get more even and crispy results with relatively quick cooking times without the food drying out in the time it takes to air fry. Most others force you to pile the food on top of each other, which can create uneven results. Using the Cuisinart Compact AirFryer, homemade fries looked and tasted like they had been bobbing in a deep fryer vat of oil.

Neither the stainless-steel basket nor the drip pan is dishwasher safe, so it’s not necessarily easy to clean. When you cook drippy battered items like tempura shrimp or onion rings, you may need to use a little effort to get them spotless. However, if you’re looking for an appliance to air fry and do it well, and don’t want to pay an exorbitant amount, this Cuisinart is well worth your consideration even though it wasn’t our top pick.

Food comes out browned and crispy from the Dash Deluxe 6-Quart Air Fryer as long as you don’t overload it. Although it’s dubbed a 6-quart model, the basket has a small diameter so it holds less food in one layer than larger models, like the Philips Airfryer XXL.

While this model doesn’t have digital controls, it's very simple to operate; simply turn the temperature and time dials for a two-step process that’s totally intuitive. If you’re tired of boring-looking appliances, the Dash comes in glossy red or aqua as well as white and black.

Even though you have to hand wash the baskets, they're nonstick and easy to get clean.

The Ninja Air Fryer performed so well, you could have convinced me that both breaded and battered chicken pieces were fried in a cast iron skillet. French fries came close to the real thing but didn’t have quite the allover crunch that you get from a fryer or the Philips (which can even crisp up a whole bag of frozen french fries at once). However, the Ninja is about a quarter of the price of the Philips and is nowhere near as big or heavy.

On the Ninja, you’ll find digital controls and settings for reheating, roasting, and dehydrating. More options make for more complicated programming but after a few cooks, you’ll easily master the necessary steps. The nonstick coated basket can be chucked in the dishwasher. With this appliance, you also get a stainless steel rack for multilevel cooking.

I admit to having had a healthy dose of skepticism when it came to the Ninja Foodi, an appliance that in addition to being an air fryer is also a pressure cooker and a slow cooker. Well, I’m here to tell you that it not only does both, but it also does them both well. In fact, it cooked the crunchiest, most well-browned results in our cook-off, plus it pressures cooks as well as any I’ve ever tested (Reviewed named it the best upgrade pick in our best pressure cookers guide, too.)

If you like, you can even combine the two functions, pressure cooking a chicken and then browning and crisping the skin on the air-fry setting. Additional programs on the Foodi allow you to broil, dehydrate, steam, slow cook, and sauté, making it the most versatile multicooker on the market. One thing of note: During air frying mode, it’s noisier than most.

As you would expect with so many options, it takes a little practice to get a hang of programming the digital controls. However, the screen is well designed with large easy to read lettering.

The Foodi is space-saving compared to owning both an air fryer and a multi-cooker, but it is a large, heavy appliance that you won’t want to be lifting in and out of a cabinet. It’s worth giving it a dedicated place on a countertop if you plan to take advantage of its versatility and use it often. Considering the multi-functionality of this machine, I wish the cookbook that comes with it was better organized and had recipes and charts for all of the functions. The basket and the pot are nonstick coated and safe for dishwasher cleaning, but the lids require TLC.

This little guy is just so darn cute you can’t help loving it (It's probably why so many Amazon reviewers go gaga for it). The Dash Compact does a decent job of “frying” as long as you confine it to about a half-pound of food at a time. No preheating is required but, for the best results, you need to toss or turn items a few times during cooking.

With its dial controls, you can’t set the Dash precisely. For the most part, the manual is helpful and even includes a few recipes, but some of the temperatures specified in the charts and recipes are different from the ones printed on the machine. You have to guess where to set the dial between 320° and 400°F if you want to cook at 350° or 390°F.

The basket has a nonstick coating and is small enough to go in the dishwasher without hogging too much space. You can choose the Dash with a glossy red, aqua, white, or black exterior.

You pay top dollar for the handsome brushed stainless steel Breville Smart Oven Air, but you get a state-of-the-art toaster oven in addition to an air fryer, which consistently turned out crispy food and chicken nuggets that tasted fried. The digital controls are intuitive to program and include automatic preheat. The Breville also has a bright oven light.

Although it’s large even by toaster oven standards, it can truly replace your oven. No need for special toaster oven-sized cookware here. And Breville claims it can accommodate a 14-pound turkey.

I do have one major quibble with this product. The manual doesn’t contain any recommendations for what, how much, or how long to cook various foods. This may not be a problem for baking or roasting, but if you’re new to air frying, you’re on your own when you’re getting started. Also, keep in mind all of the parts require hand washing.

The GoWise 8-in-1 does very well at air frying and has some nice advantages. In addition to a large capacity, it has digital controls with eight preprogrammed settings (hence the name) and an alarm that you can set to remind you to toss food during cooking. It doesn’t require preheating and the basket is both nonstick coated and dishwasher safe. With the GoWise, you get a cookbook to give you lots of recipe ideas for air frying. In addition to black and white, you can choose from red and purple housing.

Thanks to its barrel shape and stainless steel housing, the Krups East Fry Deluxe Digital Air Fyer 4.2 L is one of the classier looking appliances on the market. It yields respectable results, giving foods crunch and light browning, but I doubt you’d be able to hoodwink anyone into believing their fried chicken dinner came out of a deep-fat fryer.

It has digital controls and automatic programs for basics like fries and chicken as well as for more unusual ones like grilling and cake. The instructions for preheating in the manual are confusing and during testing, I never heard a preheat beep. In the charts, temperatures are given which don’t match up with the ones shown on the display. While the basket can go in the dishwasher, its nonstick coating makes cleanup relatively easy if you opt for handwashing.

One of the most reasonably priced air fryers you can buy, the Farberware 3.2-Quart Digital Oil-Less Fryer does a pretty good job of crisping and browning, especially when it comes to frozen foods. You do have to be sure to preheat and flip foods over to get even results. As the manual didn’t explain the usage as clearly as it could have, there was a little bit of a learning curve to get up to speed. When it’s time to pull the basket out, it sticks a little. However, if the price is your main concern, you can’t beat the Farberware, and it even comes with a cookbook. It comes in black and in white.

While the Krups Fry Delight won’t give you quite as crunchy results as the others we tested, it also won’t empty your bank account. Before the most recent round of testing, it was my best value pick. I love its square design which not only looks more attractive but makes it easy to stash away. While this is one of the smaller models, it can still hold up to a pound and a half of fries, 4 chicken pieces, or a pound of meat. It doesn’t have digital controls and you have to fiddle a bit to set the cooking temp and time correctly. As the grid at the bottom of the basket isn’t nonstick coated, it takes a bit of elbow grease to get it clean. But for the money and the size, the Krups is a good choice. Select either a black or white housing.

Although it’s a little smaller in size and capacity than other models, the Power Air Fryer XL can cook and crisp about one pound of food at once. It has digital controls with cooking preset programs. I found it somewhat generic in appearance and the basket doesn’t glide out as smoothly as on some. But on the positive side, it cleans up in the dishwasher, comes with a recipe booklet, and won’t set you back a bundle.

The egg-shaped Black and Decker 2L Purifry is not all that much smaller in size than other air fryers but has a much smaller basket. Black and Decker only recommend that you cook a half-pound of fries or one burger at a time. While it gives good results, it seems like if you’re dedicating so much counter space to an appliance, you should be able to cook enough food for four at once.

Plus, the basket didn’t glide in and out easily. Like many, it doesn’t have digital controls so it’s hard to set precisely. But my biggest complaint is that the numbers are so small that I literally needed to use a magnifying glass to set the temperature. Finishes are available in black and white.

This is an example of a product that is seriously handicapped by its manual. Unless you already have experience with air frying, we’d recommend you avoid the Instant Vortex Plus, the first air fryer from Instant Pot. The “Getting Started Guide” comes with few suggestions as to what to cook and no recommendations as to how much to cook. Both a basket and trays are included. While for the most part, the manufacturer suggests air frying in the basket, we got much better browning and crisping when we used a tray.

On the digital control pad, you’ll find five other functions and for them, too, you’re left in the dark as to what and how much to cook and for how long. The most unique feature is a rotisserie, but there’s definitely a learning curve for figuring out how to insert the spit and get a chicken rotating in the oven. If you are willing to put in some trial and error, you will be satisfied with the Vortex Plus’ cooking results. On the plus side, there’s a bright interior light and the parts are dishwasher safe.

The NuWave Brio Digital is on the large size and has a big capacity. In our tests, it cooked more unevenly and gave less browning and crisping than others. Thanks to digital controls that are easy to read and program, I did find it particularly convenient to use. It has a built in preheat setting and preprogrammed settings for things like fries and nuggets that you’re likely to cook. A divider for the basket is included so that you can air fry two foods at once and keep them from mingling. In the manual, there’s a slew of recipes to help you get good use out of your air fryer. While the parts are dishwasher safe, a top rack only is recommended and the basket may be too large for the upper shelf.

Unlike most, the Oster DuraCeramic is round and has a see-through lid so you can see what’s cooking. It has a detachable handle that you clip on to the bowl to remove it after air frying but I found it tricky to use. For cooking items like fries, there’s a mechanism to use the fryer in a tilted position to eliminate the need to shake or toss during cooking. In our cook-off, the Oster took the longest to cook and gave the least crispy results of everything tested.